Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The joint committee asked for a review, for time to be provided in the school curriculum and for suitably qualified individuals to teach it so as not to have the history or geography teacher going in embarrassed to a room full of teenagers. My key concern is about impartiality and the provision of factual information. The religious ethos of the majority of schools is preventing young people from receiving vital information that will allow them to make choices in life. There seem to be more laws to protect the rights of the institution over those of the young person. I sent a question to the Minister on 18 January on RSE being delivered by Accord, a Catholic organisation that does not, for example, deal with same-sex couples in marriage counselling services, despite the outcome of a massive referendum. Its representatives are going into hundreds of schools, including ETB schools which do not have a Catholic ethos; therefore, young people who are LGBT are not receiving what should be reflected in their lives.

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